Wow! That's Bright! | Green Energy News

March 14, 2007 – Vol.11 No.51

WOW! THAT’S BRIGHT!

LED LIGHTING TECHNOLOGY READY FOR NATIONAL PUSH FOR EFFICIENT LIGHTING.

Lighting technology and lighting fixture developers have been working hard to make LEDs (light emitting diodes) a replacement for the more-than-century-old incandescent bulb. LEDs would replace billions of old-fashioned light bulbs worldwide: the light bulb in your desktop lamp, in the floor lamp in your living room, the flood lights in recessed lighting, or really any kind of bright, general illumination.

The technology for white light LEDs has been rapidly advancing, yet up to now LEDs have proved too dim to replace incandescents or halogen bulbs, let alone fluorescent and compact fluorescent bulbs.

Now is now, however, and dimness may no longer be an issue.

Siemens’ Osram lighting division has announced it has developed a 1000 lumen LED spotlight. It’s a brighter device than a common 50-watt halogen lamp. It can provide ample white light for a desk from a height of of more than six feet. And, this is not just an LED built in a laboratory: The Ostar Lighting LED will be available to light fixture designers and manufacturers this summer.

The Ostar Lighting LED produces about 75 lumens per watt at 350 milli-amperes of operating current. In layman’s terms. the light uses only about 25 percent of the electricity of a 50-watt halogen spotlight and is somewhat comparable in energy consumption to a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL) with the same light output.

When fully developed, and costs pushed down, LEDs will shine over CFLs. LEDs turn on instantly to full illumination. Dimming is possible. They last 10 times longer than halogens, 50 times longer than incandescents. When end of life does come, disposal isn’t a problem: LED’s contain no mercury, a problem with CFLs.

Timing for the introduction of much brighter LEDs couldn’t be more perfect.

Lighting manufacturer Philips is leading the Lighting Efficiency Coalition which is asking Congress to phase-out inefficient incandescent light bulbs by 2016. The group wants the US to take action the way Australia has in replacing incandescents nationwide with lighting technologies like LEDs and CFLs. Philips notes that annual energy demand for lighting would be reduced by the equivalent of that generated by 30 nuclear power plants or up to 80 coal burning power plants.

That’s a huge cut in the nation’s energy bill and carbon emissions -Americans would save a cumulative $18 billion in energy bills each year and more than 158 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions; 5,700 pounds of air-born mercury emissions would be eliminated.

Members of the Coalition include Alliance to Save Energy, American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, Californians Against Waste, Natural Resources Defense Council and Earth Day Network.

Unlike the resistance from the nation’s vehicle makers to greater vehicle fuel efficiency, there seems to be no resistance to greater lighting efficiency. Companies such as Siemen’s and Philips are already developing the more efficient technologies and will be happy to sell new bulbs to consumers.

Visit Osram at http://www.osram-os.com/showroom/ Philips Lighting (news) http://www.philips.com/newscenter